Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for handling an WLAN offloadability indication.
Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.
These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. An example of an emerging telecommunication standard is Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is a set of enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile standard promulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). LTE is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using OFDMA on the downlink (DL), SC-FDMA on the uplink (UL), and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology. However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, there exists a need for further improvements in LTE technology. Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to other multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies.
A user equipment (UE) may have both 3GPP and wide local area network (WLAN) capabilities. That is, a UE may communicate with a core network of the wireless communication by communicating through a base station, such as an evolved Node B (eNB), or by communicating through a WLAN router. The connection between the UE and the core network by which the UE and the core network communicate with each other may be referred to as a Packet Data Network (PDN) connection.
The PDN connection between the UE and the core network may be handed over from the base station to the WLAN router under certain conditions and according to a “WLAN offloadability indication.” However, certain system errors and inefficiencies may arise when the WLAN offloadability indication changes while the UE is in the midst of a handover process, or when an updated WLAN offloadability indication is to be sent to the UE when the PDN connection is to be deactivated.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method of handling the various scenarios described herein to reduce system errors and inefficiencies.